Bio of Ole S. IVERSON (b.1855), Yellow Medicine Co., MN

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OLE S. IVERSON (1867)

There are very few men now living in Yellow Medicine County who were here
when Ole S. Iverson came nearly a half century ago.  And few are there who
retain in their memory more incidents of the early days than he.  When he
came with his parents and settled in Sioux Agency township in 1867 he was a
boy twelve years old, and as a boy he took part in many of the stirring
events of pioneer days in Yellow Medicine county.  His home is now on the
banks of the Minnesota River, in Sioux Agency, where he owns 307 acres of
land.

The subject of this review was born in a little village of Lecyfjord, six
miles from the city of Stavanger, Norway, on September 16, 1855, a son of
Iver Olson Lecy and Tori Lecy.  Both parents died in Yellow Medicine county,
the former in 1899, the latter in 1902.  The family crossed the ocean in
1861, when Ole was four and one half years old, and from that date until
1867 they resided in Adams county, Wisconsin.

In Adams county were many Norwegian families who decided to move West and
seek new homes, and about the last of May, 1867, a number of these set out
for Yellow Medicine county.  There were eighteen prairie schooners in the
caravan that started, and accompanying them were a herd of 300 cattle, some
sheep and other livestock.  There were five Americans in the party, all of
whom proceeded farther west, and the following Norwegian families, all of
who located in Yellow Medicine county: Iver Olson Lecy and his family of
five, Ole Anderson, Tom Rude (a son of Tom Rude, who was given the same name
and who now lives in the valley in Redwood county, was born on the trip),
Knute Berge, Torkel Olson Lecy, J. J. Stevens, Ole Stevens, John Stevens and
others.  Five weeks were consumed in the making of the trip.  The party
spent the Fourth of July in Redwood Falls, which then consisted of a sawmill
and one store, and on the next day the party arrived in Yellow Medicine
county.

Like most of the very early settlers of the county, the family was poor, the
possessions consisting of four cows, a yoke of oxen and a few dollars.  The
head of the family took a pre-emption claim on section 11, Sioux Agency
township, and on that place Ole S. Iverson lived until he was nineteen years
old.  Then he moved to a homestead which his father had taken in Chippewa
county, and on that place he resided fourteen years.  Then he returned to
Yellow Medicine county, bought a quarter section farm on the prairie of
Sioux Agency, and farmed it twenty-two years.

In 1902 Mr. Iverson bought his present farm on the river bottom, where he
has since resided.  The farm is one of the oldest in the county, having been
taken on pre-emption by Melvin Whipple in 1866.  The log house now on the
place and occupied by Mr. Iverson was erected in 1869 by Ole Severson and is
one of the oldest buildings in the county.  It is an exceptionally
well-build log cabin, very substantial, and one of the warmest buildings in
the valley.

For eleven years Mr. Iverson was treasurer of his township.  He is treasurer
of school district No. 5, a position he has held thirty-two years or more,
almost ever since the district was organized.  Mr. Iverson was one of the
founders of the Rock Valley Norwegian Lutheran church and is still a member
of the society.

The marriage of Mr. Iverson to Ellen Sander occurred in Sioux Agency
township November 22, 1872.  She was born in Odahl, Norway, May 4, 1854,
came to the United States when thirteen years of age, and to Yellow Medicine
county in 1868.  They have the following named ten children: Annie (Mrs. Ed.
Sebey), of Renville county, born December 29, 1876; John S. of Sioux Agency,
born January 27, 1878; Oline (Mrs. Henry Ellefson), of Saskatchewan, Canada,
born October 15, 1880; Torvald, of Sioux Agency, born November 11, 1882;
Elisa (Mrs. Ludvig Hogsven), of Sioux Agency, born March 17, 1885; Sophia
(Mrs. Iver I. Knutson), of Renville county, born June 10, 1887; Tobine (Mrs.
C O. Cortgaard), of Renville county, born September 25, 1889; Ole, born
November 24, 1894; Albert, born August 12, 1896; and Hjalmar, born January
17, 1900.

Mr. Iverson has related many incidents of the early days that are worth
recording in the History of Yellow Medicine County.  When he came in 1867
the only white residents of the immediate vicinity were Melvin Whipple, B.
H. Monroe and John Portner.  There were, however, many Indians, but they
gave the early settlers no cause for alarm.  Big game was occasionally
encountered.  There were many deer, and he and his brother were successful
in killing one in the early days.  Two buffalo were killed in the valley in
the fall of 1867 by George Carey, a half-breed, and "Old Peter"; Mr. Iverson
remembers this distinctly because he was given some of the meat.  On his
first trip to Willmar, the market point, Mr. Iverson encountered a herd of
twenty-five elk.

In the early days Mr. Iverson was quite a noted hunter and trapper, and he
largely supported the family for some years by his prowess in the chase.  In
the fall of 1870 he took 1400 muskrats, thirteen foxes, two wolves,
sixty-five skunks, twelve mink, two coons and eight badgers.  One year he
succeeded in capturing a beaver.  In the fall of 1869 Mr. Iverson speared a
rock sturgeon that weighted 225 pounds.  It was the largest fish ever taken
by a white man from the Minnesota river in the vicinity.

In many of the winter storms and summer prairie fires Mr. Iverson has had
interesting experiences.  In one of the blizzards of 1869 he was caught by
the storm while with a party of men on the way home from Willmar.  The storm
struck them when they were ten miles south of Willmar, and for several hours
they wandered over the prairie before reaching a refuge, guided by Mr.
Iverson.

In the famous blizzard of January, 1873, Mr. Iverson was in the storm from
the time in struck, about one o'clock, until five o'clock in the afternoon.
He traveled over the prairie and on the bottom was frozen quite badly, but
he finally reached home.  During the storm several men who had been at work
clearing an island in the Minnesota river took refuge at the home of his
father.  Mr. Iverson describes the storm as an awful one; the ravines in the
vicinity were filled level full.  One day while on his way to Willmar Mr.
Iverson and others were overtaken by a prairie fire which came near
terminating their experiences on the frontier.  Mr. Iverson happed to have
one match, which he lighted; by back firing all escaped the peril.  So close
did the fire come to them that one of Mr. Iverson's oxen was badly singed.

Source: A History of Yellow Medicine County by Arthur P. Rose. Published
1914